Siblings (from left) Dehvin Chu, 6, Lydia Chu, 5 and Ethan Chu, 10, all of Vadnais Heights, soak their faces in the cooling waters of misters which were set up near two medical aid stations at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds on Sunday August 25, 2013. The high temperatures and dew point combined for a heat index of 104 degrees. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)

Zlata Vlodaver, a third-year medical student at the University of Minnesota, presses a chilled bottle of water to her head at the Minnesota State Fair on Aug. 25, 2013. "You power through it physically and psychologically," said Vlodaver of the heat index of 104 degrees. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)

It will be a muggy start to the Great Minnesota Get-Together, but temperatures should drop over the next several days, making for more comfortable corn-dog-eating weather.

For the Fair’s opening Thursday, temperatures in the Twin Cities are expected to climb into the low 90s after a rainy early morning. Chances for showers drop to about 20 percent to 30 percent in late morning and 20 percent in the afternoon, National Weather Service meteorologist Tony Zaleski said, adding that humidity and heat will combine to make the air feel like it’s in the upper 90s in the late afternoon.

“You’ll have dew points generally in the low 70s, so it’s going to be really sticky,” Zaleski said. “The first day of the Fair, at this point, will be the worst as far as the heat and humidity goes.”

Friday looks to be dry and near 87. The weekend days could be wet, with a 60 percent chance of showers Saturday and 30 percent chance Sunday. Highs over the weekend are expected to be in the low 80s.

Temperatures are forecast to fall farther Monday and Tuesday, when highs are expected near 73 both days. There’s a chance that temperatures could climb back into the 90s the following weekend, but “that’s way out there, so it’s hard to say,” Zaleski said.

Temperatures during the start of the Fair will be closer to normal compared with last year, when the Twin Cities saw a record six straight days of highs in the 90s.

The heat wave was blamed for a drop in the number of fairgoers, but attendance rebounded over Labor Day weekend. Highs in the Twin Cities fell to 75 and 68 on Sunday and Monday, respectively, and both days that year saw record numbers of people pass though the Fair’s gates.

Average high temperatures in the Twin Cities during the Fair range from 80 on Thursday to 77 on Labor Day.

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in News

DULUTH, Minn. — A Roanoke, Va., multimillionaire who made his fortune in health care and has recently purchased coal mines wants to buy the bankrupt Magnetation LLC operations on Minnesota’s Iron Range and put laid-off employees back to work. That’s the plan of Tom Clarke, owner of ERP Compliant Fuels and now ERP Iron Ore, who has brokered a deal...

Renaldo Terez McDaniel was looking under the hood of his car outside a St. Paul auto-parts store on a summer evening last June when three shots were fired. One hit the 31-year-old McDaniel in the shoulder, another pierced his stomach. The third struck his head.

Delta Air Lines is rolling out new free snacks for customers in the main cabin, including brand-name yogurt bars and pretzels. Some will come in larger portions than before because, Delta has figured out, that’s what customers crave.

MADISON, Wis. — University of Wisconsin System officials Thursday approved raising tuition for out-of-state, graduate and professional school students by hundreds of dollars at more than a half-dozen campuses as they grapple with a Republican-imposed freeze on in-state undergraduate tuition. The plan calls for increases at UW-Eau Clare, UW-Green Bay, UW-La Crosse, UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, UW-Stout and all the system’s two-year...

Minnesota’s attorney general sued Volkswagen on Thursday, saying the German automaker violated state laws when it sold diesel vehicles in the state with special systems designed to defeat U.S. emissions tests.

In the midst of his Cabinet deliberations, President-elect Donald Trump flew to Ohio on Thursday to meet with victims and families after the latest U.S. outbreak of violence, a somber duty that became all too familiar to his predecessor.